Welcome to the Leicester Bangs Blog - check regularly for arts and music news, occasional previews and lots of reviews.
Find out what's on at Leicester's Musician Venue with our daily update, and follow us on Twitter @LeicesterBangs

Thursday, 15 November 2012

Mark Rothko painting crowns New York art sale

A painting by abstract artist Mark Rothko has fetched
$75.1 million (£47.2m) at an auction in New York.

Rothko's No 1
(Royal Red and Blue), described by Sotheby's as "a seminal, large-scale
masterpiece", was the subject of a heated bidding war.

The price far
exceeded the pre-sale estimate of $35m-$50m (£22m-£31.4m) but fell short of the
record $86.9m (£54.6m) a Rothko fetched in May.

The sale also
saw a 1951 Jackson Pollock work sell for $40.4m (£25.4m).

Pollock's
Number 4, a characteristic drip painting, easily outstripped the previous
highest price - $23m (£14.4m) - fetched at auction by a work by the abstract
expressionist.

The Rothko
painting was one of eight works hand-selected by the Russian-American artist
for his landmark solo show in 1954 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

It had been in
the same collection for 30 years before coming to auction.

Tuesday's sale
of post-war and contemporary art at Sotheby's saw plenty of interest from
investors, raising a total of $375m (£236m) - the best auction result in the
auction house's history.